Fire hits Pertamina refinery in Indonesia on 15 May; repair to take a week

SINGAPORE (ICIS)–Indonesia’s Pertamina expects repair of its fire-hit Balikpapan refinery in East Kalimantan province to take a week, the state-owned energy firm said on Monday.

A fire erupted at the 260,000 bbl/day Balikpapan refinery on the morning of 15 May – killing a contractor and injuring five others – and was put out after about an hour at 11:31 (03:31 GMT) Jakarta time, Channel NewsAsia reported.

The incident occurred at Plant 5 in the hydro-skimming complex unit at the refinery, it said.

“The repair of Plant 5 is scheduled to be completed in the next 7 days, and we ensure that fuel production can continue to run safely,” said Ely Chandra, area manager for communication, relations and CSR (corporate social responsibility) at Pertamina’s Balikpapan refinery, in the statement.

“Refinery operational recovery efforts are currently being carried out by Pertamina Balikpapan’s internal team to ensure that Plant 5 can immediately return to maximum operation,” Pertamina stated.

In mid-November last year, Pertamina had a fire incident at its Cilacap refinery in Central Java.